Almost ten meters high Baroque altar has returned to its place after eight years

In the branch church of St. Areh in Frajhajm, we completed the assembly of the large altar, the work of Jožef Straub, one of the most important late Baroque sculptors who worked in our area. The altar structure was created in the fifties of the 18th century and is a truly monumental creation with its height of 960 centimeters.

Our story with him began in 2018 as part of a project TrArS – Tracing the Art of the Straub Family. On the first visit, the conditions in the church were very poor: due to extremely high humidity, the colored painting on the altar was severely compromised and in many places it detached from the wooden support.

A demanding decision followed. Dismantling the historical altar was an extreme intervention in its material and structural integrity, but in this case it was dictated by the extremely unsuitable conditions in the church and the planned construction works. Therefore, in November 2018, we dismantled the altar structure and transported it to the workshop.

In the following years, research and conservation and restoration interventions followed, which also revealed many surprises. Under several later reconstructions, we discovered remnants of the original polychromy and gained insight into the much more colorful and luxurious appearance of the altar from the time of its creation – with gold, silver, and green, red, and blue lazuites.

Straub's statues in natural size also attract special attention, with emphasized mimicry and distinctly theatrical, almost stage-like poses.

We collaborated with the responsible conservator from the Maribor Regional Unit of the ZVKDS during the planning and implementation of the intervention, and the final assembly was carried out as a sub-departmental project of the ZVKDS Restoration Center in collaboration with Mizarstvo Novak s.p.

After almost eight years, the altar is back where it belongs – in the space for which it was created.